The Saviours
by Princess Tiger
Summary: I wondered if this search for Ash had been worth the effort; I had gone from the deserted streets of Pallet to barren islands, questioning everyone who knew him, witnessed murders that plagued my mind and now I was going to rot in a godforsaken cell.
1. Drake, Acting Head of GMen

**The Saviours**

_When you are young, you are always told to cherish things, to not take them for granted. But there's a problem: you never know which things to cherish most and even the slightest misjudgement can break your heart._

_Another thing you are taught is that you should never lose hope. And you shouldn't. In the dark times that still haunt the memories of civilians, I nearly lost hope and in a way I'm glad I didn't, but I also lost something I should have cherished far more. But we can't go back and correct our mistakes; we live on and learn from them._

_All I can say is that at least it's all over now._

**Drake – Acting Head of G-Men**

"Come on," I urged Ritchie as I dragged him down the deathly silent corridors of the League tower. We were almost at our destination on the sixth floor. We stopped outside a thick mahogany door, decorated with a brass plaque which was engraved to read:

'Drake Mandrake – Leader of Hoenn Elite Four.'

And now he was the Acting Head of G-men since Lance disappeared, though that wasn't mentioned. That's part of what we were here for; we had begun our search for Ash Ketchum and Lance, who was also Ritchie's cousin. They had disappeared a little over two months ago and things had progressively got worse since. Only the Sevii and Orange Islands remained unaffected.

"Duplica," Ritchie said, gently breaking me away from my thoughts. I shook my head quickly and went through the door. Behind the door was a small reception-like room, decorated with regal walls and carpets. Opposite the door leading to the corridor were a grand set of double doors, probably leading to Drake himself. To the right of the door was antique desk and behind it was Drake's secretary, a small mousy woman, who was busy stacking papers.

"Drake will be out in a moment," she answered robotically, without even looking up at us. Sure enough, Drake exited his office and gave some papers to the secretary. He glanced at us cautiously.

"Ritchie and Duplica?" he asked coldly.

Beside me, Ritchie shifted furtively and nodded. "Yes, sir."

"This way," he ordered, gesturing lamely towards his office. As we followed behind, Ritchie gave me a warning glance and it confirmed my belief that something was amiss; Drake was an acquaintance of Ritchie and had always been polite. His coldness now was completely out of character.

_Or maybe he's changed like everyone else - war does that to people._

I thought about this as we sat down. Since Ladening had been voted President of Kanto, a new criminal organisation, Team Eon had surfaced, wrecking havoc among the four main regions - far worse than that of its predecessors. Everyone lived in fear and the G-men were like resistance fighters, warring against Eon, while the government did nothing. People were killed daily with many more just vanishing. _Almost like a dictatorship, a nation ruled by fear. _

"How can I help you?" Drake asked in the same cold tone, bringing me away from my thoughts.

"We're on a search for Ash Ketchum and Lance De Vere," Ritchie answered cordially.

"Why both together?" he questioned, narrowing his eyes in scrutiny as he tried to catch us out.

"Both disappeared around the same time and Misty and Cynthia vanished together afterward." I replied unsurely, a little unnerved by his scrutinising gaze that seemed to bore into me, searching for any foul intentions.

"Very well," he answered after a while. "I am pretty certain you are trustworthy friends."

I let out a breath I didn't realise I had been holding.

"But," he added in a quiet, threatening tone that made me shudder. "If you misuse the information I am about to trust you with, you will regret it; understand?"

"Yes, sir," we answered earnestly.

"I'll start with when Ash came to me. I invited him to join the G-men, you see, but he wanted to join anyway…"

_The tall young man strode proudly into Drake's office, his black cape swirling behind him. Despite his strength as both a trainer and a man, even Drake felt the slightly imposing air of radiating from this man and the sagely Pikachu perched proudly on his shoulder._

_Drake himself was sat behind his enormous old desk, observing the hustle and bustle of the Indigo Plateau through the sixth floor window. He greeted the man with a smile and shook his hand._

_"It's great to see you again, Ash," he greeted._

_"You too, sir," the man replied with an amiable smile as he removed his black hat, revealing a ruffled mop of raven hair. _

_"Since we invited you to join, we can skip formalities, but I need to know: why are you joining us now if you rejected our invitation not twelve months ago?"_

_The young man stared intently at Drake for a moment, and then placed the Pikachu down on the chair wordlessly. They remained in silence for a moment while the young man scrutinised Drake, then he sighed and began to speak._

_"You have seen many dreadful things - you will not be shocked, so I can tell you my real reasoning for being here." The man paused as he started to pace up and down the room. "As you know, John Ladening has just been elected President of Kanto; the public were easily fooled by his rusty promises and lies."_

_"What on earth do you mean?" Drake interrupted._

_"John Ladening is not what he seems. He is evil," Ash answered exasperatedly, still continuing to pace about the room. "He has joined the four teams together to form Team Eon and he plans to manipulate the bosses into helping him take over the entire Pokémon world."_

_"I thought Magma and Aqua disbanded," Drake objected loudly._

_"So did I, but they regrouped and were lured by Ladening and now he plans to use all of them to summon the Great Dragon."_

_"But what has becoming President got to do with it?"_

_"He can censor broadcasting and gain the trust of the public so no-one will suspect anything."_

_Drake sighed - defeated - he didn't like Ladening much himself, but he didn't want to believe Ash. Then he gave the man a concerned glance. "How do you know all this anyway?"_

_"For the past nine years I have been infiltrating the various teams and for the last six months I was in Team Eon."_

_"Won't they recognise you?" Drake asked, suddenly worried in case Team Eon were to attack._

_"No worries, I borrowed a Ditto off a friend, wearing it as a mask it's a perfect disguise."_

Drake paused in his narrative a moment as he turned to look at me in realisation.

"You are the friend who lent him a Ditto," he stated, almost accusingly.

I nodded. "After Ash won the Indigo League, he asked if he could borrow my Ditto on a semi-permanent basis while he went away. I thought nothing of what he was doing and gave him Dit right away."

Drake nodded. "That's not all I can tell you, but I think it will be best if I take you to see the other G-men first. Together our memories are likely to generate more information."

Ritchie nodded. "Lead the way, sir."

Drake took us towards the lift and we went down to the basement. Along the way he explained how the G-men used the twenty-ninth floor, which could not be reached by the general public and the only way to get there was through a lift concealed in the basement.

The ordinary lift reached the basement and the doors slid open to reveal a dark and dank corridor, a harsh contrast to the classiness of the rest of the building. Drake strode ahead, leading us through a complex maze of passages until we eventually reached a door that looked like it should open to store cupboard. Instead, we were greeted by the familiar inside of a lift.

As we stepped inside, I noticed that instead of a number of buttons for the various floors, there was a keypad, presumably intended for a security code. Drake hunched over the keypad, so we could not see, and typed in his code. The lift then whirred into life and began its ascent towards the top of mysterious twenty-ninth floor.

**A/N: So I've had this story milling around in my head for some time now, but the idea was originally the events leading up to the disappearance, but then I had a brainwave, wrote three chapters in one day and the story has just flowed from there. Many hours that should have been devoted to homework and coursework has been spent on this story so I hope you enjoy it. **

**As of right now (15:29 on Wednesday 17th February 2010) I have almost the entire story written out. **

**Great thanks to my beta Jenn for all her help in the writing of this story and to my brother who has read through every chapter thus far to provide a second opinion. **

**Feedback (both kind and critical) is greatly appreciated. **

**Princess Tiger**


	2. The Collective Efforts of the GMen

The Collective Efforts of the G-Men

We stepped out into a grand hallway. A thick red mat, embroidered with complex gold patterns, carpeted the way to a fancy set of double doors. They were huge and mahogany, with beautiful carved brass handles. On either side of the door stood two proud Dragonite statues, each holding a large torch that helped light the dim hall.

"Welcome to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," Drake stated proudly. Then, he marched forwards and burst through the double doors, radiating his imposing aura. We scurried after him and I instantly drew a breath. Six Dragonite statues - just like the ones outside - stood around the room, towering over the grand, long table. Around the table were seventeen chairs. Only six were filled.

"Gentlemen," Drake addressed them. "I have some guests for us today."

Six pairs of cold eyes shifted from Drake to us.

"Ritchie and Duplica," he said, turning to us. "Meet Steven Stone, Sidney Murphy, Lorelei Riveria, Aaron Graham, Phoebe Stone, and Palmer Speed." I watched carefully as each person raised their hand as their name was spoken.

"What happened to everyone else?" I blurted out before I could control my curiosity.

"Lance, Ash, Misty, and Cynthia have disappeared in one way or another; Wallace is with the remaining Gym Leaders in their hideout, Gary is in a coma, and Tyson, Harrison, Bruno and Flint are in hospital too," Steven told us matter-of-factly.

"Please take a seat," Phoebe told us from the seat opposite her husband. Drake took the seat that had been left for him, opposite Sidney and just to the left of the head of the table. I sat down opposite Palmer, and Ritchie sat beside me.

I gave the chair at the head of the table a curious glance.

"We refuse to sit in Lance's place until we have closure," Lorelei stated, answering my unasked question.

"So what are you here for?" Aaron asked from beside me with a nonchalant flick of his pale green fringe.

"They're on the search for Ash and Lance and want your help," Drake answered for us, giving the other G-men a look that said it was an order rather than a request.

"Fine, what do you need to know?" Sidney replied straightaway. At first I was a little taken aback by their eagerness, especially since they were all acting quite cold. Then I saw Lance's empty chair and I understood. These were some of the most powerful trainers, yet they needed their leader back and we were a way to get that.

"Anything you can remember from the weeks leading up to their disappearance," Ritchie answered.

"Also we need a list of all the Gym Leaders that have been kidnapped," I added, remembering that several of the Gym Leaders would be of a help - Brock, for example.

"Well, Gary joined the G-men about a fortnight before Ash, who told him to," Palmer began. Ritchie nodded.

"Wait," Phoebe interrupted. "Don't you need to take notes or something?"

"No," I answered as Ritchie pulled out a small device. It was black, about the size of my forefinger and had four red lights and one green one that blinked on and off randomly.

"What's that?" Aaron asked.

"It's a recorder that operates on psychic energy," Ritchie answered.

"I received it not long after Ritchie and I decided to begin our search," I explained. "It came with this," I continued, pulling out a note from my pocket.

Drake reached down the table to take it from me and began to read it to the group,

"_Duplica, I am aware of your intentions and this may help in your search. Go to Drake first. Kimberley_." As Drake finished, all seven G-men turned to stare at us.

"You are most definitely trustworthy," Drake stated. I gave him a curious look - whoever this Kimberley was, she was obviously important. Drake passed the note back.

"Not long after Ash joined, there was an attack on Cerulean City," Palmer narrated, going back to the story. "The Waterflowers fled to the Gym Leaders' hideout, except for Misty - she came here. Ash and Misty completely ignored each other, so Lance had a talk with them that seemed to clear things up, Misty was accepted into our League, and that was the end of it."

"Then," Phoebe continued. "Team Eon launched an attack on Koga's Gym in Fuschia, Ash, Lance, Misty, Cynthia, and Gary went out. None of us know exactly what happened, all we know is that Koga was kidnapped, Lance and Ash disappeared, Gary was found on the brink of death outside the Gym and in a coma, and Misty and Cynthia fled to Pallet Town. But by the time we got there, they'd disappeared and Delia Ketchum refused to divulge their whereabouts."

"So our advice would be to go and see Delia, then if you can, go and find Misty and Cynthia," Steven concluded.

"And the Gym Leaders?" I prompted.

"We are not sure exactly," Aaron answered, a tinge of uncertainty staining his tone. _They _didn't know?

"All contact with the Sevii Islands has been severed so we don't know exactly who's there," Lorelei explained.

"We'll see if we can get there then," I said.

"Thank you for doing this," Drake said with a grateful smile, identical to those now worn by the other G-men.

"And thank you for your help," Ritchie answered, rising from his chair. I followed suit, and we bid our farewells and left the room.

As we entered the lift, I realised now that we were faced with another problem: the code. I stared at the keypad, brow furrowed as if that would somehow give me the code.

An arm reached over my shoulder and stabbed 28570345 into the keypad.

I tilted my head to gaze at the man behind me. He smiled down at me,

"I have a good memory and a far taller than average height." The words didn't register properly, but I nodded. Instead, as I stared at Ritchie's face, I wondered if he felt the same fuzzy feeling that I did. And what was that feeling anyway?

**A/N: Review?**

**Princess Tiger**


	3. A Hazy Shade of Fuchsia

A Hazy Shade of Fuchsia

"Go back to the scene of the crime," Delia muttered cryptically, glancing around her door at the barren street. "I can help you, but you must go there first."

I nodded, though I really had no idea what she was getting at. Well, I knew she wanted us to go to Fuchsia, but it's not like it would be easy - last I heard, the 'police force' had completely cordoned off the area.

"'Till then," Ritchie said, taking hold of my hand to lead me down the path. Delia gave us a final nod before she closed the door. She was a lot less friendly than when I saw her last, but I sympathized with her pain. Even the prospect of losing a child is unbearable to a parent.

With one last glance around the deserted landscape of Thistle Road, Ritchie released his Charizard. I hopped on the back.

From above, Kanto doesn't seem all that different, though there are more roads, less trees, more army bases, and the occasional member of the 'police' patrolling the skies. Anyone flying over would probably believe that the country had barely changed in the past ten years, how wrong they are.

I clung to Ritchie's waist as we sped through the air, the wind whipping my green hair in my face. The fuzzy feeling had returned and I revelled in it while it lasted, knowing fully that it would vanish as soon as I got off Zippo. It made me feel happier as if nothing was wrong and that I was simply riding on the back of a pokémon with a friend.

Ritchie shouted something to me, but his voice was lost in the wind. As Zippo slowed and started to descend, I looked down and saw that we were over Fuchsia. Though the fuzziness was still there, a sinking feeling also developed, but that was probably the motion of going down.

We landed outside 'Meowser's', a fairly upmarket-looking diner, it was painted red and had large windows that showed us that it was completely empty inside. Not really surprising I suppose, no-one ventured outside anymore, most businesses closed.

As we entered, the maitre d' greeted us with a smile.

"May I help you?" he asked.

"Table for two," Ritchie answered while I scrutinised him; he was a lavender-haired man, probably in his early forties. And he looked incredibly familiar, far too familiar for my liking.

He called over a waitress, a woman who looked to be his age, with slightly greying pink hair, and who also had the unmistakeable air of familiarity.

"This way," she said and led us through to a table in the centre of the diner. We sat down and she handed us two menus, leaving us to look them over.

I stared blankly at the menu while I tried to place the waitress and maitre d'. I stole glances at the pair occasionally.

Ritchie glanced at me over the top of his menu. "You recognise them too, huh?"

I nodded vaguely as a new person entered the diner through the kitchen. The man was unbelievably short - even with his chef hat - and had a strange, cat-like personality. He glanced at us and walked over to the woman and man with a peculiar gait. Ritchie subtly slid his hand in his pocket and checked his Pokédex and it bleeped in recognition. A Meowth.

A red-haired woman, a blue haired man, and a Meowth that acts like a human.

"Team Rocket," Ritchie mumbled, voicing my conclusion.

"I wonder why they have a diner here?" I mused as Ritchie gestured to them.

"Let's ask," he said.

"May I help you?" the woman- was it Jessie? - asked as she arrived.

"Do you recognise us?" he asked. Both Jessie and I gave him curious glances, neither really knowing what he was getting at.

"Not really," she said after a while.

"Call over James and Meowth and see if they remember," he ordered.

Jessie's eyes widened. "How do you know he's a Pokémon?" she asked, amazed. She gazed at us again, still trying to remember us. Finally, her eyes widened and recognition dawned on her features.

"You're both friends of the twerp," she gasped.

"Ritchie and Duplica," I said.

"James, Meowth, come over here," she said in a slightly far-off tone. The two scurried over and glanced between us and her.

"What is it, Jess?" James asked, concern showing in his tired green eyes.

"These two are the twerp's friends that Dee told us to expect," she said. Ritchie's brow furrowed, I could tell he was thinking the same - who's Dee? Delia possibly? But no-one referred to her as that. Did they?

"Come, follow me," Meowth told us.

We stood and followed him through the kitchen door and into a small room that looked like an office. Jessie and James came in soon after and locked the door, then stuffed the keyhole with cotton wool.

"Can't risk being overheard, can't trust anyone these days," James muttered as he sat in the desk chair.

"We 'ave tons of info on da twerp," Meowth began, his ever familiar accent reigning over his speech.

"But we should begin with our times in Team Rocket," Jessie said before the Pokémon could carry on.

"Not long after Ash became Indigo League Champion, Giovanni started to become less, well, evil, really," James said with a shrug and Ritchie raised his eyebrows. I understood what he meant, Giovanni had been a personification of evil. The devil's personal advocate.

"And then the team started to become less active," Jessie continued, "Which we didn't really have an objection to…"

"But then," James added. I smiled at the way they were completely in sync when telling a story. "We heard of this man who had persuaded Maxie and Archie into re-banding Teams Aqua and Magma, combined the two and managing to reinforce the terror that had once reigned over Hoenn."

"Then, the new team pulled in Cyrus and Team Galactic and together they pressured Giovanni into joining the teams to form the new Team Eon," Jessie narrated. I furrowed my brow - hadn't Cyrus been in the Distortion World? How the hell would he get out?

"And this man," Jessie said dramatically, "He used his unrivalled skills in manipulation and persuasion to convince the public he was a worthy President of Kanto."

"We left not long after that since the new things Ladening tried to get the grunts to carry out were just inhumane," James said in a level voice.

I nodded dumbly, finding the sheer amount of information a little difficult to take in. And I was still wondering how the hell Ladening managed to re-open the gate to the Distortion World.

"One thing you should know about Ash," Jessie began. "Is that he helped us get out of Team Eon and paid for us to open this diner."

"And he dragged Gary out of the gym, but ran back in seconds before it completely burst into flames," James said.

"Dat's all we saw of da attack, but da twerp's not dead - dat kid's invincible."

The conversation was broken by the sound of glass smashing near the front of the shop. We all froze as a stampede of heavy footsteps pounded through the diner, heading straight for us, quickly followed by the hammering on the office door.

"Open up!" a cold voice demanded.

"Quick," Jessie hissed. "Escape through the window - don't worry about us."

I was about to protest when Ritchie seized hold of my waist and leapt through the open window, an amazing feat considering his height. I refused to look back through the window as we boarded Zippo, knowing I'd never remove the sight from my memory, if those haunting screams were anything to go by.

The flight back to Pallet seemed to drag on for hours. My mind was racing with all the possible things that could have happened to poor Team Rocket. They weren't even evil like the rest of them, they were honestly good people.

When we finally landed on Thistle Road, I could tell something was amiss. From afar, the Ketchum household looked as it always did: prim, neat, and identical to the other houses. But as we approached, I recognised what was wrong immediately - the door had been kicked open and was now hanging precariously on one hinge. Even from a distance we could see paintings, flowers, and broken glass strewn across the hallway. What the hell was going on?


	4. Haunted Memories

Haunted Memories

As I feared, 29 Thistle Road was completely empty, and the rest of the inside was much like the front hall; items littered the floor - many damaged and broken. And, judging by the state of the lounge, there had been a struggle. I could only hope that Delia escaped, but the specks of blood on the cream carpet weren't exactly reassuring.

After we concluded that there was nothing more that we could draw from the ravaged house, we followed the secret path Ash had once shown us that led us from the Ketchum house to the Oak laboratory atop the hill.

The path was a rocky strip, hidden behind the fence that enclosed the alleyway that ran to the back of Thistle Road. As a consequence of this, it was damp and stank of the rotting garbage that littered both sides of the fence. I had to watch my step carefully, as the beer cans discarded by the local youths had been dumped in the most awkward of places. The stench was enough to turn me nauseous, which didn't really help matters especially with my racing mind and thumping heart.

Silently, I was begging that Delia was just at Oak's place and that a bunch of local gang members took it as an opportunity to loot her house. However, reality shattered these hopes as I knew there wouldn't be any chance of us ever seeing Delia again. After all, Delia would have noticed people attacking her house from Oak's house as it was only just down the road.

The walk was deadly silent, and we saw no sign of any human having been down here in years, but that wasn't much different from the main roads.

We could now see the fields of Oak's estate, they too were completely silent, and none of the pokémon were roaming about, like they normally did. Something was definitely amiss.

But as we approached the back door of the lab, we paused upon hearing the sound of raised voices. They were muffled, so the exact words were indistinguishable, but I could tell that one of the speakers was Professor Oak, and another, Tracey.

The door was unlocked, so we crept inside. The argument was coming from beyond the heavy metal doors of the lab and listening was still hard, so I tugged on Ritchie's sleeve and pointed to the stairs. He nodded in agreement and I followed him quietly up each step - we could watch what was going on from above.

Strategically hiding ourselves in the shadows, Ritchie and I peered through the banisters at the scene unfolding below from the balcony that overlooked the main floor of the lab.

Professor Oak and Tracey stood in the centre of the lab, hands tied and encircled by approximately ten men, one of whom, judging by his general burliness and imposing aura, looked to be in charge.

Each of the men was wearing the same: black, militaristic uniforms, each with a symbol emblazoned on the back - an unforgettable dragon-snake creature, twisted into a figure of eight with a sword running through the middle. Team Eon. If they saw us, we were dead. I had no doubt about that.

"How many times do I have to tell you? I'm not interested!" the Professor yelled at the leader.

"And how many times do I have to tell you: if you refuse, you're dead?" the man countered.

"I don't care - I'd rather die than bow to your ridiculous ideals!"

The man growled and lashed out, striking the Professor across the face. He stumbled back, but his fiery glare still showed that he refused to back down.

"Bow to me, old man!" the man yelled.

"Never," he replied stubbornly.

The leader took out a gun and pointed it threateningly at Oak. I stared in horror and felt Ritchie's sharp intake of breath behind me. I hadn't even realised he still had hold of my hand until he gave it a comforting squeeze.

At the last second, he swivelled round and rounded on Tracey, I saw his finger pull back the trigger, and I bit my lip as the gunshot sounded. I felt the single tear escape as Tracey crumpled to the floor, a stream of blood starting to flow from the hole in his chest.

He turned to Oak triumphantly.

"Now will you obey me?" he asked with a commandeering tone.

The Professor remained silent as he stared at Tracey's body in shock.

"Well?" he prompted impatiently.

"No, never," he said defiantly.

The man smiled and gestured to the other Team Eon members. They swiftly moved in, some holding Oak, and another taking a camera.

"What are you doing?" Oak asked.

The man smirked smugly, "Don't you think Kanto wants to see the fall of their pathetic excuse for a hero?"

Ritchie's grasp on my hand tightened and I noticed how I now had a constant stream of tears making tracks down my face.

"Kanto," the man said. "This is what happens if you defy Team Eon, as your beloved Professor has done today."

I barely had time to brace myself as he whipped around and fired his gun. I didn't want to watch, but I felt compelled to, as if the scene unfolding was a magnet, drawing my eyes to it and forcing me to behold what was happening. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as the bullet passed through Oak's head, taking with it a crimson trail of blood as his lifeless body crumpled to the floor.

I choked back a sob. Kanto's hero was gone. And I felt an unbearable feeling of emptiness.

I heard Ritchie gasp in horror behind me, but it didn't sound like it was Oak's fall he was surprised by. I slowly turned my head, my stomach knotting into a tight ball, to see a Team Eon grunt towering over us. Shit.

"Follow me," he ordered in a low tone. We stood silently and obediently followed him as he led us down the staircase and out the back door. My head was throbbing. I was going to die. Murdered more like. Twenty-eight and murdered, really not how I'd envisioned dying. But then nothing has turned out the way I wanted it to, if it had my country wouldn't be the way it is, governed by fear.

He stopped in front of a shed in the corner of the yard, the one where the food was kept, hidden from the back door. My heart was pounding at a thousand miles an hour and the little comfort Ritchie's presence had provided inside was no longer there.

He gestured for us to go inside and then he followed us in. I could still feel my heart thudding in my chest as the grunt glared at us with his sharp emerald eyes. I disregarded the twinge of familiarity I felt on the grounds that I knew no-one who would dare associate themselves with criminals.

"Take this," he said, taking me by surprise as he thrust out a large, crumpled envelope in my direction. I did as I was told, wearily fingering the envelope.

"Go," he said. "Don't let yourself be seen, fly to Cleopatra Island - you're being counted on."


End file.
